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Blackboard mugs

A couple of years ago I bought a blackboard mug on the Internet for a friend and thought it’d be fairly easy to make, and much cheaper (they cost around £7 in a shop and this would cost you a couple of quid tops). I’d bought some blackboard spray-paint to use on some frames and gave this a go. The result was good, but spray-painting makes a bit of a mess, and if you live somewhere rainy you’ll probably have to wait a while to be able to do it (I’ve learnt by trial and error that doing it indoors is not a good idea!), so the paint and brush version is far less messy. Having said that, the finish looks much smoother.

You’ll need:

– Blackboard paint

– A small brush (unless you go for the spraying option)

– Masking tape

– A plain mug

You can do any shape you like. I ended up covering most of the mug surface with it, leaving only a top and bottom border and the area around the handle, but this can be smaller or you could draw a heart, star or whatever shape you like. Something with straight lines is easier with the masking tape, obviously, but you could also make a template and use it.

Design your template and stick the masking tape onto the mug. Then paint the exposed bits with blackboard paint. Give it a coat, wait until it dries, and then repeat. It might need a 3rd coat depending on the paint you choose.

After this, websites I visited recommended prepping the blackboard surface by rubbing a piece of chalk on the flat side and then wiping it. I’d say wait until you’re sure it’s completely dry to do this, as I messed one mine up for being too impatient.

As the blackboard paint I bought was water-based, I wasn’t sure if it’d come off when washing the mug, so to be on the safe side I “baked” the mugs in the oven at a high temperature (about 200 degrees) for half an hour. This seemed to do the trick as I’ve washed them a few times and it hasn’t come off yet. Don’t scrub too much just in case though!